The War of the Worlds. Character analysis

10.1.2 - use speaking and listening skills to provide sensitive feedback to peers10.C3 respect differing points of view;

10.1.4 - evaluate and respond constructively to feedback from others;

10.1.6 - organise and present information clearly to others;

10.2.7 - understand speaker viewpoints and extent of explicit agreement between speakers on a range of general and curricular topics;

10.2.8 - recognise inconsistencies in argument in extended talk on a range of general and curricular subjects;

10.3.1 - use formal and informal language registers in talk on a wide range of general and curricular topics;

10.3.4 - evaluate and comment on the views of others in a growing variety of talk contexts on a growing range of general and curricular topics;

10.4.4 - read a wide range of extended fiction and non-fiction texts on familiar and unfamiliar general and curricular topics;

10.4.9 - recognise inconsistencies in argument in extended texts on a wide range of general and curricular topics;

10.5.2 - use a growing range of vocabulary, which is appropriate to topic and genre, and which is spelt accurately;

10.5.4 - use style and register to achieve appropriate degree of formality in a growing variety of written genres on a range of general and curricular topics;

10.6.5 - use a wide variety of question types on a wide range of familiar general and curricular topics;

10.6.16 - use a wide variety of conjunctions on a wide range of familiar general and curricular topics

Plan

Planned timings

Planned activities

Excel
Resources

Teacher
Notes

Beginning the lesson

To compare a novel with a film

• Ask Ss to watch the film adaptation of The War of the Worlds or rent the DVD and play it in class. If this is not feasible, ask Ss to read a plot summary for the film at www.wikipedia.org or www.imdb.com and compare it to the plot of the book.

• Elicit answers from Ss around the class. Suggested Answer Key

The film is completely different to the book in a number of ways. The characters are different. In the film, the main characters are Ray Ferrier and his children, Rachel and Robbie. In the book, the main characters are the narrator and his wife, the curate and the artilleryman. The setting is different. The film is set in the USA and the book is set in the UK. On the whole the plots are very different, but the main idea is the same that Martians come to Earth, cause lots of death and destruction and are then killed by simple bacteria.

Main Activities

To read for gist/specific information

Ask Ss to read the newspaper headlines and the extracts and say how they are related to The War of the Worlds.

Suggested Answer Key

The first extract is about how people believed Earth was being attacked by Martians when The War of the Worlds was first broadcast over the radio in 1938. They didn't understand it was a fictional drama.

The second extract explains that the first story over exaggerates what really happened and although some people were frightened, there was no mass hysteria.

Aim To compare and contrast two news articles

• Ask Ss to read the news articles again and compare and contrast the presentation of the reaction to Orson Welles' version of The War of the Worlds.

• Elicit comparison from Ss around the class and which one Ss believe and why.

Suggested Answer Key

The first article presents the public reaction as hysteria with many injuries and calls to the police. The second article presents the public reaction as mild and claims that the initial reports were exaggerated. It says that some people were frightened, but not in a complete panic. It claims that the newspapers at the time misrepresented the story to make it more news worthy.

I believe the report from 2011 because I think it is very possible that it made the story more exciting. I don't think people were so easily fooled by a radio programme.

express an opinion

Ask various Ss around the class to tell the rest of the class how they would represent the story if they were to film the story today in their country.

Suggested Answer Key

I would keep it very closely to the original story. The main characters would be the narrator, another man like the curate, but perhaps he would be a farmer or a villager instead of a type of priest. The place would be a country village and a large city as in the book and I would include a lot of special effects for the aliens. The plot would be the same as the book with only a few changes to make it more relevant to the present day. The Martians would be aliens from another planet because we know a lot more about Mars these days and we know there are no Martians. They would still have weapons like the Heat-Ray and the Black Smoke because these are still very scary. However, the ending would be the same as it is logical that bacteria could kill aliens.

Ending the lesson

To create a poster

Explain the task. Divide Ss into small groups and tell them to research online and create a poster about how activate intelligence. Allow time for Ss to complete the task or assign it as HW. Ask various Ss around the class to present their poster to the class.

Check Ss’ answers around the class.

Additional information

Differentiation – how do you plan to give more support? How do you plan to challenge the more able learners?

Assessment – how are you planning to check learners’ learning?

Cross-curricular links
Health and safety check
ICT links
Values links

monitor less able learners in group work and give further modelling and drilling support

use concept checking questions to check learner understanding of why passive is used

cross-curricular links: languages [contrasts with L1]

challenge more able learners to give multiple [and/or] answers in practice exercises

assess pronunciation in oral and checking stages of the lesson [particularly weak form ‘was’]

Reflection

Were the lesson objectives/learning objectives realistic?

Did I stick to timings?

What changes did I make from my plan and why?

Answer the most relevant questions from the box on the left about your lesson.